THE BOATING REPORT

THE BOATING REPORT; New York Flag Inspires Melbourne-Bound Sailors

By HERB McCORMICK

Published: November 18, 2001

On Sept. 19, before gliding past the Statue of Liberty and into the Atlantic Ocean, the offshore sailor and educator Rich Wilson hoisted the flag of New York State into the rigging of his 53-foot trimaran Great American II.

Wilson and his co-skipper, the round-the-world racing veteran Bill Biewenga, had sailed into Manhattan on Sept. 10, a day before the attack on the World Trade Center. The city they were setting out from was a far different place than the one they had sailed into.

Their original plan had been to take off on Sept. 16 for Melbourne, Australia, in pursuit of the 145-year-old sailing record from New York, established by the clipper ship Mandarin in 1856. The greater mission was to provide classroom content for students after the voyage ashore via Sitesalive.com, Wilson's Web site.

After the terrorist attacks, the pair considered abandoning the voyage. But bolstered by messages from Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani, teachers and well-wishers, Wilson and Biewenga decided that forging ahead was the right thing to do.

So when they left on the 19th, after pushing the starting date back several days out of respect for the victims of the attacks, the New York flag snapped crisply in the breeze.

''It reminds us of the city,'' Wilson said last week via a satellite phone from the Indian Ocean, after nearly two months at sea. ''It's a salute to those who died as well as those who've been working to put the pieces back together. We were so impressed by the way New York rallied, we're pleased to have flown that flag the whole way.''

With the charts of Mandarin's voyage laid out beside those of Great American, Wilson and Biewenga have a ready reference guide as to how they are faring in their record attempt. Late last week, the two-man crew was just under 2,000 miles from Melbourne, and about 750 miles -- or roughly three days -- ahead of Mandarin's position at the same juncture of the trip.

The three-masted Mandarin took 69 days to make the 14,000 nautical-mile passage. To beat the record, Great American will need to arrive in Melbourne by late afternoon local time on Nov. 28. Last Thursday, the trimaran was making a steady 10 knots in about 12 knots of breeze. But with an area of high pressure and light winds just ahead, beating the clipper's mark is far from a foregone conclusion.

''This is definitely not over yet one way or the other and I think it's going to be a nail-biter,'' Wilson said. ''We've got Mandarin coming up from the south and just making prodigious days across the chart. But we have the pedal down, we're doing a lot of hand steering and trying to get everything out of the boat.''

Wilson professed admiration for his rivals from another era. ''They really did sail a beautiful course, with graceful, arcing turns and no zig-zagging down the route,'' he said.

''Given the fact that they didn't have the weather forecasting, the good food and clothing, the navigation equipment, the sleeping bags, it's just amazing to imagine a ship that big going that fast so consistently,'' he added. ''I wouldn't have survived in one of those boats. It speaks a lot about the design and engineering of the time, and the skills of the crew.''

Great American's voyage has also been a skillful enterprise. Upon leaving Manhattan, the boat struggled to get on track while beating to windward for a week in strong southeasterly winds. ''I was thinking, this is going to take forever,'' Wilson said.

But in the second week the wind freed up and Great American flourished in the reaching conditions it was created for. By the time the boat crossed the equator into the Southern Hemisphere, it had opened up a four-day lead over Mandarin.

They lost a day recently through a combination of light airs that followed a long day battling cold winds up to 50 knots, a prolonged session during which they dropped their mainsail altogether and dragged warps off the stern to control the vessel in 20-foot breaking seas.

''It was pretty wild,'' Wilson said. ''We launched a couple of the blades off the wind chargers. They must still be going up.''

Through it all, fittingly, the New York flag streams aloft. ''It's in great shape and flying proudly,'' Wilson said. ''Quite remarkably, it isn't even tattered. It's like it knows it has a role here.''

MAKING WAVES

Team Tyco's three-day hold on the lead of Leg 2 of the Volvo Ocean Race came to an abrupt halt last Wednesday when the boat was forced to turn back for South Africa with a damaged rudder. The Volvo fleet had set sail from Cape Town on its way to Sydney, Australia, on Nov. 10. Team Tyco's skipper, the New Zealander KEVIN SHOEBRIDGE, said the boat would rejoin the race after making repairs in Port Elizabeth.

Photo: In an emotional start to a voyage from New York to Melbourne, Australia, Great American II glides past the Statue of Liberty. (Courtesy of Rich Wilson)